Childcare worker charged with sexually abusing 91 kids ‘kissed a girl’, former manager says

The man who has been charged with sexually abusing 91 young girls was allegedly reported to police for kissing a girl months before his arrest.

A former manager of the man charged with sexually abusing 91 young girls said he was accused of kissing a child several months before his arrest.

The childcare worker, from Gold Coast, has been charged with more than 1600 offences, including rape.

It is alleged that the crimes took place while he worked at childcare centres in Sydney and Brisbane.

His former manager, Yolanda Boruki, told A Current Affair on Friday that she had raised concerns about his behaviour with Queensland Police in October 2021, 10 months before his arrest.

Boruki said the man, who is 45, worked as a teacher at one of the childcare centres she managed.

He was arrested after another staff member watched him allegedly kiss a child while she was sleeping.

Yolanda Borucki says she alerted Queensland Police to a staff member who was seen allegedly “kissing” a child.

Police investigated the incident while the man was stood down on full pay.

They didn’t charge him due to lack of evidence, Boruki said.

“[The man’s] explanation was this person could not see very clear under the fort because it’s quite [a] dark space, and he wasn’t kissing the girl, he was just whispering to her ear to wake her up,” she said.

Boruki said the teacher was welcomed back by one mother with a box of chocolates while the staff member who reported him resigned.

Boruki said she always had a gut feeling about the teacher and said there was one moment when he kissed a child on the forehead while she was watching.

AFP Assistant Commissioner Justine Gough gives a press conference after a former childcare worker was charged with 1623 child abuse offences against 91 children. Picture Mohammad Alfares

“There was a little girl [standing] up in front of him. And he was rubbing her arm,” Boruki said.

“She was just standing there and during the conversation, I just noticed all [of a] sudden he actually kiss her on the forehead.

“I was like, that’s, that’s odd, that’s not something that educators will do.”

Boruki said she raised the incident with management and questioned the man about it the following day.

“He apologised. He [said] ‘Look, that’s, that’s probably because I am very close, it’s a very small centre. We are all here like a family,’ ” she said.

Boruki was made redundant on Monday, just one day before authorities announced the man’s arrest.

The man’s alleged offending includes 136 counts of rape and 110 counts of sexual intercourse with a child under 10.

He was arrested on August 20, 2022, with detectives initially charging him with making and distributing child-abuse material.

Victim identification experts were able to identify 87 little girls allegedly abused by the man in Australia.

Over the following months, the AFP and QPS detectives combed through nearly 4000 images allegedly found on the man’s phone and other electronic devices.